Wairarapa rampant in mud

Rugby

Wairarapa College scored a resounding 50-3 win over St Bernard's College of Wellington at a wet Memorial Park in Masterton on Saturday.

Coming off the back of an upset loss to Tawa College in dismal conditions the previous weekend, the Wairarapa first XV were looking for an improved performance and they got their wish, although coach Chris Senior readily conceded their effort was far from perfect.

"We still made too many mistakes and there was some average decision-making," Senior said. "We've got a couple of major semifinals coming up at the start of the new term and we'll need to lift the intensity further for those games."

The opening stanzas saw Wairarapa College struggle to get any rhythm into their game but once they started to build phases they found holes in the St Bernard's defence and by halftime they had run in three tries.

The second spell saw Wairarapa College demonstrate greater speed and accuracy in their play and the lift in tempo produced a further four converted tries.

They were splendidly led by Chaz Matthews who was given strong support by Utah Walker, Bon Wilson and Matt Macrae.

Try-scorers for Wairarapa College were Abe Southey, Matt Macrae, Utah Walker, Jack Wakeling (2) and Andrew Hull (2) with Southey's boot giving him a 20-point haul.

He is now the leading scorer across all first XV grades in the Wellington region.

Meanwhile, the Rathkeale College first XV suffered a 13-6 loss to Lindisfarne College after the two sides were level pegging at 3-3 at halftime. Josh Blatchford kicked two penalty goals for Rathkeale.